Something Real
by TiffanyNichelle
Summary: Chloe/Clark shipperness. Written after Metamorphosis.


Something Real **Something Real**-Rated PG 

"I came across another _interesting_ article last night." Chloe said as she pushed Wednesday's mystery meat lunch around her plate. When it came to Wednesday lunch at Smallville High, you didn't eat it you dissected it. She knew she should brown bag her lunch on Wednesdays but she always ended up forgetting. 

Chloe glanced at Clark expectantly and waited for him to ask her about it. A beat went by and then another before Chloe realized that his attention was focused on another. Her eyes narrowed as she finally looked in the direction that Clark was gazing off to. She made a noise of disgust in the back of her throat. Lana Lang. Of course. Miss Homecoming Queen. Miss Perfect. Miss Clark Has a Crush on Me and I Have No Idea He's Alive but He Still Places Me on a Pedestal. 

Lana paused in the doorway to the cafeteria and looked around the room. As her head moved side to side, her hair swung around her shoulders. Chloe could have sworn she heard Clark sigh. Then Lana looked in their direction and she smiled brightly. This time Chloe was positive she heard Clark catch his breath. Chloe rolled her eyes. 

Lana started walking towards their table and Clark suddenly sat up straighter. She was a few feet away when Clark suddenly jumped up, knocking his knee against the table and upsetting his and Chloe's lunch trays. 

"Easy boy." Chloe murmured. She stared at the table. She couldn't watch this. She knew what would happen. Lana would smile at Clark. Clark would fall all over himself. Lana would leave. Actually maybe she _could_ watch it after all. She reached for her soda and pulled out the straw. She started to chew on one end. 

"Lana. Hi." Clark said awkwardly. Chloe noticed that he stared at Lana's weird necklace. He started to shrink back and accidentally bumped into Chloe. 

"Still here!" She said. 

"Hi Clark. Hey Chloe." Lana smiled down at her. 

Chloe nodded at her silently. God, it was hard to hate someone when they were nice to you. It just felt so wrong. Of course it didn't mean it was impossible. Just hard to do that's all. 

"I see you got your necklace back." Clark stared intensely at it. He was breathing hard. 

"Yeah, it just appeared outside my door the other night." Lana played with the chain. "I think Whitney left it there for me. He felt so bad about losing it." 

"Right, right." Clark nodded. 

Lana glanced at Clark's shoulder and smiled at someone. She held up one finger to indicate that she was on her way. She said to Clark, "I gotta go. Whitney's waiting for me." 

"Oh!" Clark said in surprise. "I thought…uh…never mind." 

Lana continued to smile blankly at him. Chloe shook her head. She's always smiling. Doesn't her face ever hurt from all that smiling? Lana squeezed his arm. "I'll talk to you later, Clark?" 

"Yeah, sure." Clark said. He watched as Lana walked over to Whitney's table that was only a few feet behind Chloe and Clark's. She greeted the other football players sitting there then gave Whitney a kiss. 

"Oh, you didn't think she was coming over here to talk to _you_, did you?" Chloe murmured around her straw. 

Clark looked at her suspiciously. Chloe managed to stare back with innocence. She said. "What?" 

"Nothing." Clark gathered up his bookbag and lunch tray. 

"Where are you going?" Chloe asked. 

"I'm going to take a walk." He told her. "I need some air." 

"But I was going to tell you about the newspaper article…" Chloe frowned as Clark started walking away before she could even finish her sentence. She slumped down in her seat. She hoped she hadn't hurt his feelings with her remark. Clark could be super sensitive when he wanted to be. Teasing him about Lana might not have been the smartest thing to do. She murmured. "Sorry." 

"Sorry about what?" Pete said as he set down his stuff next to her. "And who are you talking to? And what happened to Clark? I thought he was eating with us." 

"To paraphrase a cheesy 70s show," Chloe sighed, "Lana, Lana, Lana." 

Pete looked at her confused. "What?" 

Chloe took the time to explain. "Lana came through. Clark did his usual. It was disgusting. I was trying to have a normal conversation with him which is impossible whenever she's around." 

Pete smirked at her. Chloe glared at him. "Stop that." 

Pete just laughed and shook his head. Chloe said, "I said, stop that." 

"You're jealous, Chloe. 'Fess up to your crush and life would be much simpler for you." Pete advised. 

"You don't know what you're talking about. I told you that I don't have a crush on Clark. And even if I did, it wouldn't do any good cause he's so caught up in Lana Lang. Which is all beside the point because I don't have a crush on him!" Chloe finished in a huff. 

Pete waited a moment before nodding his head slowly. "So you're saying you _don't_ have a crush on Clark?" 

"Sometimes I _really_ don't like you." Chloe snatched up her tray, quickly stood then stomped away from the table. 

"Aw, Chloe, I was just teasing you." Pete called out after her. "Don't make me eat alone." 

Chloe paused long enough to dump her tray. She continued until she was pushing past the cafeteria's double doors and then she was gone. 

Pete looked down at his tray with resignation. He sighed. "It's just you and me, Mystery Meat." 

~*~*~

Chloe found Clark sitting in the bleachers. She figured he would be out here. Clark stared out morosely at the football field. She waited for him to acknowledge her but when one minute stretched into two Chloe cleared her throat. "Clark?" 

He shook his head, startled. "Chloe? Hey, I didn't even see you there." 

"Really?" Chloe raised her eyebrow. "I thought maybe you were trying to do the silent treatment thing. Cause if you were, you're not very good at it." 

"No, I was just thinking about some stuff." He patted the space next to him. "Pull up a bench. What's up?" 

"I was worried that you were mad at me for what happened in the cafe." Chloe sat down next to him. 

Clark looked at her confusion. "What are you talking about?" 

"Just now?" Chloe prompted. "You? Lana? Me with a badly timed, really rude comment?" 

"That?" Clark shrugged, lifting his wide shoulders. "I knew you were joking. It didn't bother me." 

"Oh? Oh. Good then." Chloe nodded quickly. "This thought you were lost in just now? What was it about?" 

Clark was silent for so long that Chloe began to feel uncomfortable. "If it's something deeply personal, you don't *have* to tell me. But if it's deeply *embarrassing* you might as well spill. It'll only be a matter of time before I figure it out and then use the information to shamelessly torture you." 

Clark laughed. "No, it was nothing like that. It was…I was thinking about Lana." 

"Oh." Figures, Chloe thought darkly. "Well, what were you thinking about?" 

Clark shrugged again. "Nothing important." 

"Uh-uh. Clark, when it comes to you and Lana, it's always important." Chloe muttered. 

Clark glanced down at the ground and said hesitantly. "It's not some dire, life or death thing." 

"With a crush as obvious as yours, everything's a 'life or death' thing." Chloe deepened her voice and said melodramatically. " 'Lana smiled at me but her smile for Whitney was much brighter. Oh God, I want to die!' " 

Clark scowled over her giggles. "Am I really that obvious?" 

Chloe stopped laughing. "Only to me…and Pete…and the rest of the school…" 

"You think Lana knows?" 

"If she does she wouldn't laugh at you." Chloe was reluctant to admit. Lana Lang didn't have a mean bone in her body. 

"If she knew that I had a thing for her…" 

"It wouldn't be the end of the world." Chloe tried to reassure him but he shot her a look. 

"Only if she didn't share my feelings." 

Chloe looked away and said softly. "Yeah, having a crush on someone who didn't feel the same as you…that would suck." 

They sat quietly for a few moments; both lost in their own thoughts. Finally Chloe looked down at her watch. She got to her feet. "I better go. Lunch is almost over." 

Clark stood also. "You want me to walk you to class?" 

She shook her head. "We're going in opposite directions. By the time you got to my class, you'd be late for yours. I'll see you later." 

Chloe walked a few feet away then glanced over her shoulder. "You know, any time you want to talk about things…Lana stuff or not, you can come to me. You know that right?" 

"Of course." Clark smiled at her. Chloe couldn't hold back her answering smile. 

~*~*~

"Chloe." 

Chloe raised her head a few inches off her pillow and squinted in the darkness. Did someone just call her name? 

"Chloe." 

Chloe jumped up. There it was again. Someone was whispering her name. It sounded like it was coming from her window. Suddenly there was a soft tapping and then she heard him. "Chloe, it's me. Clark." 

"Clark?" She repeated softly. 

She slid out of bed and padded over to the window. Pulling back the curtains did in fact reveal Clark Kent. She peered out at him. "What are you doing here," she glanced over her shoulder, "at three in the morning?" 

"I couldn't sleep." He said. "And you said I could come talk to you whenever." 

"I meant at a normal hour." She muttered. 

"Can I come in or not?" He asked. 

"You better. You might fall out of my tree and break your neck. I'm not going to explain _that_ to my parents." Chloe pushed the window up higher so he could crawl in. 

Once he unfolded his tall frame he glanced around her room. "You know, this is the first time I've ever been in your room." 

"I know." Chloe murmured, suddenly shy. 

"It's nice." Clark commented. He stopped to look at her. A soft smile appeared on his face. "Nice nightgown." 

"Huh?" Chloe didn't get it. Then she looked down and realized that she was only wearing one of her dad's old faded T-shirts that ended high above her knee. "Oh great." 

She quickly jumped on her bed and pulled her comforter down over her bare legs. Struggling not to appear as embarrassed as she was, Chloe smoothed down her hair and said in a not so calm voice. "So what's up?" 

"I couldn't sleep." Clark began. 

She nodded. "You said that." 

Clark sat down next to her on the bed. Chloe's breath caught. She was shocked. _Her_ breath was catching just cause Clark sat down next to her. On her bed. And he was so close he was practically on top of her. 

Then he was turning slightly so that he was facing her. His face was just inches away from hers. His eyes stared intently into hers. Now she was struggling to breath and focus on what he was saying when all she wanted to do was focus on his mouth. 

He murmured softly, "I couldn't stop thinking about Lana." 

There. That was just what she needed. Like a cold splash of water. Chloe cleared her throat. "Lana, right." 

"I think I've made a mistake." He said. 

"About what?" 

"About Lana." He said. 

Now Chloe was really interested. "What do you mean?" 

"Lana." Clark said. He began to absently toy with Chloe's hair. "It's like I've built her up to be this perfect girl and I don't know anything about her." 

"What did you say?" Chloe hadn't heard a thing since the moment he touched her hair. 

"I was talking about me and Lana. I think this whole thing is just a crush." 

"A crush." Chloe repeated blankly. 

"Lana and me, we would never make sense as a real couple. She's just a fantasy. And I don't want a fantasy anymore. I want something real." Clark murmured. His fingers moved down from her hair to trail a path behind her ear down her jaw line and then down her throat. 

Chloe felt as if she was tingling all over. 

"Something real." Chloe repeated. 

Clark grinned at her. "Are you even listening to me, Chloe?" 

"I heard you." Chloe said quickly. "So you're given up on Lana?" 

He nodded. "Let her be with Whitney. They have that whole cookie cutter thing going on. They'll be Prom King and Queen, get married right after high school, end up with a bunch of babies, Whitney will work at the gas station…" Clark shook his head. "Boring normal stuff. That's not for me. I need some one extraordinary. Someone who wants more than just Smallville. Someone who's going to go places. Someone looking for adventure. Someone more like me." 

"Yeah." Chloe breathed. "Do you…do you have someone in mind?" 

"I do." Clark said staring into her eyes. 

"Mind if I ask who?" She whispered, staring back into his. 

He slowly smiled at her, taking her breath away. She fought hard to hold onto her concentration. "Who?" 

"You, Chloe." He said. "It's always been you. I've been blind this whole time. I couldn't even see what was right in front of me. I've known how you felt about me the whole time." 

"You did?" Chloe said. "Oh great." 

She started to cover her face with her hands but he stopped her. He held on to her hands. "Don't. Don't be embarrassed. I should be the one who's embarrassed. I knew the truth but ignored it." 

Chloe took a breath. She wasn't sure just how to handle this. Sure she'd dreamed about something like this happening before but for it to really happen…it was almost too much. "What…what do we do now?" 

Clark considered it. "We could take it very slow and discuss what's happening between us…" 

"Or?" 

"Or," Clark cradled her face between his large hands, "we could just do this for now…" 

Chloe closed her eyes and tilted her face up towards his. She waited for his lips to touch hers. Just as they softly brushed their lips against each other's, Chloe's alarm went off. 

Jolted out of her dream Chloe slammed her hand down on her clock, switching it off. She muttered. "Stupid clock, couldn't wait five minutes? It was just getting _good_."


End file.
